Different Side To Me
by ArmedWithMyComputer
Summary: The day that everyone in Stanford learned not to cross Sam Winchester in a dark alley. Three thugs got more than they bargined for when they tried to mug Sam and his friends. Stanford fic.


**Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural.**

**Also, all mistakes are my own, as this is un-beta-d! Hope you guys enjoy it :)**

O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o

It happened after Sam had been at Stanford three years. He and Jessica had being dating for over a year, his studies were going well, and he was going out for a drink off campus with a few friends. It had started out as a pretty good night for Sam Winchester.

They had been only out a few hours and it was nearing midnight, when a mutual decision was made to all return back to the dorms. Sam and his friend Zack had an important exam the next day, and needed to get a few hours of sleep, and the others were just tried after the long week. The streets were relatively silent, and the group of five college students sauntered back to the campus in high spirits.

Sam had taken Jessica out, with his friends Zack and Matt, and Matt had also brought his girlfriend Maria with him. They decided to take a shortcut through the town down a dark side street, laughter loud in the quiet air and jokes being exchanged in high spirits, none guessing the danger that lay in wait for them.

All of a sudden, Zack, who was leading the way, let out a shocked yell as a man appeared out of the shadows and jumped at him. "What the—Aaagh!" The random attacker tackled Sam's friend to the ground, having the element of surprise, and pulled out a gun. Sam immediately lunged forward to help his friend, when he was grabbed by behind. A glance around showed another man emerging from the darkness with a crowbar, all of the thugs looking dangerous and afraid of nothing.

Maria and Jessica started screaming as Matt attempted to push them behind him, but was then shoved to the side, narrowly missing the swing of the crowbar that followed his descent. The college student's head connected with the hard brick, and he crumpled to the ground, a sharp yell slicing through the cool air. Instinct kicked in for Sam, and he immediately slammed his elbow back into the man who was holding his arms' face. The guy's grip loosened, and Sam whirled around, delivering a few swift punches to his face, before dropping the man to the ground, and turning on his heel to face the one who seemed to be the leader.

"Just give us your money, and no one gets hurt," The thug with his gun to Zack's head snarled, "Well, not _too_ hurt…" Sam's eyes narrowed, and he took a menacing step forward. "Stay back, kid, or your friend gets it." To prove his point, the gun was pressed harder to Matt's skull, making him whimper, and fix pleading eyes on Sam.

"Get away from him. _Now_."

All of Sam's friends flinched at the cold tone in his voice, one that they had never heard before. The man only sneered, though slightly put off by the threatening looking figure that looked over six feet tall. "I don't think so," The guy retorted, "Now, give me your wallet, and I might let this one live."

Without warning, Sam grabbed the second gang member that had been standing closest to Jessica, easily knocking the metal bar out of the guy's hands, and pulling out the knife he always kept in the lining of his jacket, before turning back to the leader. His knife appeared at the stunned man's throat, a gasp escaping from all his friends, and he raised his eyebrows slightly. "Now, get away from my friend, and I'll let this idiot go."

The leader looked incredulous, unable to believe that of all the college students they had chosen to mug, they had picked this group. "You wouldn't…"

"_Try me_."

Jessica spoke up during the tense silence that followed Sam's statement, Maria crying into her shoulder, and Matt moaning on the ground. "Sam, just give him your wallet." One thug was cold on the ground, one caught in Sam's deadly hold, and the leader crouched with his gun pressed to Zack's head.

"I've got this, Jess. Trust me… Now, let my friend go, or you'll see just how far I'm willing to go."

Sam nodded slightly, watching with hard eyes as a shaky Zach was released, and motioned for him to get behind him. "Zach, man, get the girls and Matt out of here. And th—" Sam hesitated slightly at the next part, "Then call the police." One of John Winchester's Golden Rules had been to never involve the cops in anything. It was right there, practically seared in Sam's brain; beside never forget holy water and a silver dagger.

His friend's eyes widened as he heard Sam's barely inaudible hiss, and he shook his head, fear in his eyes. "I'm not leaving you, Sam."

"Sam, is that your name?" The gang leader called out. "Well, Sammy, just let my man go, and then we'll be even. No harm done." The hunter released his hold on the thug quickly, shoving the man to the ground quickly, before stepping back, and pushing Zack behind him. Once his friend was out of range from the gun, Sam turned his attention to the man who had been keeping the girls back, pointing the knife at him in a skilled manner, until he silently backed away from the college students, feeling uncomfortable at the accuracy and familiarity that Sam was handling the weapon with.

"Zach, I'm serious, get out of here, before this guy does something insane," Sam muttered under his breath again, as he helped Matt off the ground, and put the knife on the ground for a fraction of a second in order to support his groaning friend.

"Sam!" Maria screamed a split second before Sam looked up quickly to see the gun pointed in his face, and the man approaching him.

"Leave the knife on the floor, and don't move." His body tensed, Sam rose slowly, letting Matt lean on Zack as he took a controlled step forward. "Get back, Sammy, or I swear I'll shoot." The gang leader threatened the youngest Winchester cockily, no longer apprehensive now that Sam had no weapon in his hands, and was seemingly out of tricks.

"Don't call me Sammy."

A heartbeat later, Sam had made his move, deciding that he had put his friends at risk for long enough. He threw himself forward, strong arms slipping into the familiar routine of disarming a threat, his sights set on getting the gun. The man, not expecting such a daring attack from a now unarmed college student, was caught off guard, and pulled the trigger by mistake, terrified of Sam by this point.

The guy that had had the crowbar in the beginning, that had been lurking behind in the alley, took off the minute he saw the exchange going badly for his boss, heavy footsteps pounding in the distance matching the rush of adrenaline that flowed through Sam.

The bullet rocketed straight into Sam's shoulder, but the hunter didn't hesitate as he felt it rip though muscle and tendons. Jessica and Maria were both shrieking by now, and Zack was yelling, but Sam ignored them and the pain, managing to wrestle the thug onto the ground, and wrench the gun from his hold. The man, scared for his life, reached out, and by some stroke of good luck, was in reach of the hunting knife that lay discarded on the ground. His fingers closed around it, and he swiped it awkwardly upwards, and caught Sam on the chest, leaving a shallow cut that drew blood immediately.

Sam grunted in pain, before grabbing the knife easily out of the man's grasp. He then proceeded to beat the crap out of the guy, not paying attention to the blood that pumped out of the bullet wound, and mixed with the stream of blood coming from his chest. Deciding not keep punching the man until he collapsed, Sam rose silently, and turned to face his friends.

Jessica was screaming his name over and over, Sam only hearing her then, while Maria was sobbing on the ground from shock and fear. Throwing his mobile at a groggy Matt, a scared expression on his face, and yelling for him to "Call a fucking ambulance!" Zack ran over to Sam, cursing as he saw the blood that was slowly staining Sam's shirt.

Sam attempted to shrug his friend off, his vision blurring slightly, but Zack was almost as strong as him, and had the advantage of not being injured. "Don't need an ambulance…" Sam said quietly through gritted teeth, "'S nothing, man."

"You've gotta be fucking kidding me, Sam. You were just _shot_. Sit down before you collapse," Zack guided Sam over to the nearest wall, and Sam was surprised to find how hard it was to resist the hands that were gently pushing him down so that he was sitting propped up against the bricks. "Oh God, there's so much blood. What the fuck are we supposed to _do_?"

Suddenly Jess was in his line of vision, tears streaming down her face as she shook with sobs. Sam tried to smile at her, and tell her that he was fine, that it was just a simple shoulder hit, but she _shush_ed him. Then she was pressing down hard on his shoulder with what looked like Matt's jacket, and Maria was screaming in the backround again, and then Sam decided that he had had enough.

"I'm fine, guys…" It came out as more of a mumble rather than the reassuring and confident sentence that he had planned on, but Sam decided to keep going with it, "Jus' a scratch… Bet it doesn't even need any stitches. Jus' help me get home, and—and… 'M fine…"

He must have zoned out for a few seconds then, sometime between when he had pleaded with his friends to let him go home and when Jess had had to turn away for fear of losing it completely, because when he opened his heavy eyes again, he was being loaded into an ambulance. He was strapped down, and already had an IV inserted, as well as an oxygen mask over his face. Jess was holding tightly onto his IV free hand, watching as a paramedic kept a steady pressure on his shoulder.

It was then that the hunter realised that his shirt and other layers had been cut off, leaving him topless, and covered in his own blood. He blinked down at his chest, noticing the multitude of scars that he always tried to hide, and lifting a weak hand to push away the oxygen mask. His girlfriend noticed immediately, and tried to wipe away the tears that ran down her cheeks as she pulled his hand down.

"Oh God, Sam… You're gonna be okay, everything's okay," Sam tried once again to explain that he was _fine_, that he had had much worse, but his mouth was too dry. He groaned slightly, trying to sit up so he could tell the ambulance to stop and just let him out, but he was pushed back down and held still. A sting in the crook of his arm sent panic into his mind, and Sam fought it, "Sam, Sam, it's okay! They're just giving you something you to calm you down, don't fight it, baby." The darkness took him over slowly, and the Winchester felt his body go limp.

The next time Sam woke up, he was in a hospital bed. His shoulder was swathed in bandages and securely pinned to his side, gauze also wrapped several times around his upper torso. Jess was there again, but this time she was having a hushed conversation a few feet away from the bed with Zack and Matt. Matt had a piece of gauze hastily taped to his forehead, but other than that, they both looked unscathed. Shaken, but safe.

Zack's eyes flickered over to the bed, concern evident in them, and he caught Sam's slightly glazed gaze. "Shit, he's awake…" Sam blinked lazily from under the heavy influence of pain meds as his friends hurried over to him, "Hey, Sam, how're doing, man? I hear they've gotcha on some pretty intense drugs."

Jessica gave Zack a smack upside his head, as he laughed at Sam's confused expression, "Sam, the doctors need some of your medical history, okay? And they want to contact your family, but you don't have a next-of-kin listed, so…" Sam's eyes drooped, his vision growing blurrier, and he grunted in an attempt to say something in response.

Trying to get rid of the weariness that threatened to put him back to sleep, Sam shook his head slightly, and told himself to just suck it up. His mouth struggled to form coherent words, his lips feeling rubbery as he spoke, "'m sorry 'bout what… happened in the… alley," The Winchester was ashamed to find that he had to stop several times in the sentence to breathe. He really had gotten soft in the years away from hunting.

"Oh God, Sam, don't apologise. You fucking saved us, man. But… how the hell did you know how to all that ninja stuff? I mean, holy crap!"

"My, uh, Dad was… in the marines… Wrestled with my brother…" Sam desperately racked his sluggish mind for a reasonable excuse for his fighting skills, one that didn't involve demons and ghosts. "… Did karate…"

Thankfully, it seemed that his friends bought his slightly random excuses, as a look of understanding was visible on their faces. Not wanting to get into the issue of him carrying a hidden knife on his person, Sam decided to just give in to his increasing fatigued. His eyes slipped closed once again, and then everything was lost in the blissful peacefulness of unconsciousness.

It took a week after that before he was allowed to be discharged from the hospital. Even though Sam had been ready to leave after only a day, Jess had insisted that he stayed until the doctors declared him perfectly healthy, and Jess certainly was a force to be reckoned with when she wanted something. After a quiet word with his friends, Sam had begged for them not to tell anyone about what had happened that night.

They all agreed to not speak of the incident, though Matt was still in awe of Sam's 'ninja skills,' but the news had somehow spread out around the campus. For the few weeks after Sam was released from the hospital, he couldn't walk through Stanford without someone staring at his sling (Jess forced him to wear it for a ridiculous amount of time – as long as the doctors recommended), or a group of people pointing at him and whispering. Even his teachers seemed to be more wary of him than before.

Eventually, people started to forget about the incident, mostly due to the fact that Sam refused to talk even a little bit about what had happened and more interesting gossip came about, but no one ever forgot the new side of Sam that was revealed.

It was if a completely different person had walked though the campus for a few weeks, a guarded stranger with a hardness in his eyes, and muscles that seemed more prominent than ever once people noticed the sling and bulky bandages. This new Sam scared everyone, as it was unexpected and chilling, and just plain dangerous. His walk seemed like more of a soldier's march rather than a college student's swagger, and for a short time Sam tensed up whenever anyone stared at him for long enough.

But then the old Sam returned, and things went back to normal. Life went on, and the incident was pushed to the back of the friends' minds. But there was one lesson that no one ever forgot.

Never cross Sam Winchester in a dark alley at night, even if he was outnumbered and defenceless. It was just practically suicidal.

O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o

**Hey guys! So, this one-shot had been on my mind for awhile, so I just decided to sit down and write it tonight :) Hopefully it wasn't too bad, and that it actually made sense since I've been travelling all day and really need to sleep!**

**I'd love to hear what you thought about it, so please leave some feedback in a review :)**

**Thanks for reading,**

**ArmedWithMyComputer xx**


End file.
